Sarah Hedgecock

While Pete Seeger may not have made it to the Top 40 in recent years, the legendary folk singer-songwriter continued to be influential until he died on Tuesday at 94. An influence on everyone from Bruce Springsteen to Bob Dylan, he helped bring political folk music to the mainstream and was an activist for more causes than we can count.

Pete Seeger, the legendary American folk musician and social activist, died of natural causes on…
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Above, Henry A. Wallace, on a political tour of the American South, listens to Pete Seeger on a plane between Norfolk and Richmond in 1948.

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[Pete Seeger strums a banjo on the bow of the 75-foot Hudson River Sloop to be launched in South Bristol, Maine on May 14, 1969. Seeger and a group of volunteers had the $150,000 vessel built to dramatize the fight against pollution of Hudson River Valley. Image via Stephen Nichols/AP.]

[Pete Seeger, left, performs at the Rally for Détente at Carnegie Hall in New York in 1975. Image via Richard Drew/AP.]

[Arlo Guthrie and Pete Seeger, rising during a memorial service for the recently deceased actor Will Geer. The service was held at the Martin Luther King Jr. center in New York City in 1978. Image via RB/AP.]

[A group of Americans and Nicaraguans stage a demonstration in front of the U.S. Embassy at night to protest against Contra aid in 1988. The elderly man with the banjo is Pete Seeger. Image via Mauricio Orozco/AP.]

[Pete Seeger, left, leads a march from the family home of Abbie Hoffman in Worcester, Mass., to Temple Emanuel for a 1989 memorial service for the former political activist. Image via Peter Southwick, File/AP.]

[Pete Seeger, who hadn't sung with Burl Ives for at least 40 years, sings with him in rehearsal at New York's 92nd St. Y in 1993. He sent word to the hotel where Ives and wife Dorothy were settling in before the concert that he'd like to sing a duet with him. Ives said, "I'll be glad to see Pete." They sang "Blue Tail Fly." Image via Marty Reichenthal/AP.]

[Pete Seeger, Stevie Wonder and Keith John, right, perform at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremonies in New York in 1996. Seeger was inducted for his early influence on rock and roll. Image via Mark Lennihan/AP.]

[Pete Seeger encourages the crowd to sing at Teachers College, Columbia University commencement convocation in 2003. Singer and two other men were given awards and honorary degrees during the ceremony. Image via Chris Hondros/Getty.]

[Pete Seeger performs with his grandson Tao, left, and Bruce Spingsteen during "We Are One: Opening Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial" in Washington in 2009. Image via Alex Brandon/AP.]

[Pete Seeger performs at the benefit concert celebrating his 90th birthday at Madison Square Garden in 2009. The concert was also a benefit for Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, created by Seeger to preserve and protect the Hudson River. Image via Evan Agostini/AP.]

[Pete Seeger receives the 2009 Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize at Hunts Point Riverside Park in 2009 in New York City. Image via Astrid Stawiarz/Getty.]

[Pete Seeger, left, is joined on stage by David Rawlings, center, and Ramblin' Jack Elliot, right, at George Wein's Newport Folk Festival 50 in Newport, R.I. in 2009. Seeger played the first Newport Folk Festival in 1959 and is credited as a co-founder along with George Wein. Image via Joe Giblin/AP.]

[Pete Seeger, 92, marches with nearly a thousand demonstrators sympathetic to the Occupy Wall Street protests for a brief acoustic concert in Columbus Circle in 2011. The demonstrators marched down Broadway singing "This Little Light of Mine" and other folk and gospel songs while ad-libbing lines about corporate greed and social justice. Image via John Minchillo/AP.]